Australia v India 4th Test: Unbridled Mitchell Marsh love blurs vision of Justin Langer

The Aussies were blinded by the light created by Mitch Marsh’s time in the sun. A Test recall was one thing but his elevation to a leadership role? Says a lot about Australian cricket right now.

The recall of Mitchell Marsh for the MCG obviously didn’t work out.

Mitch Marsh’s twin MCG failures with the bat were enough for one extremely seasoned cricket scribe to declare “enough is enough”.

The Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell, are cricket’s low hanging fruit when the wider fan base decides to take an axe to the team after a Test match loss.

It’s highly likely Mitch, the younger of the two, won’t survive the selector’s swing of that axe for the SCG Test, despite serving his purpose with the ball when the wicket played dead on Boxing Day.

Justin Langer is a huge fan of the talents of Mitchell Marsh.

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But the numbers just don’t paint any sort of picture that could allow coach Justin Langer to persist with a number six batsman so short on runs amid a batting order which remains a work in progress.

Repeating that Marsh’s average in his past 10 Test innings is under eight, and that through his 31 Tests he has passed 50 just five times is like screaming in space.

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And you can have a workhorse holding up an end with the ball, but if he then also takes up a batting spot, and can’t get runs, his value as a seam-up trundler diminishes markedly.

Last summer’s Ashes, where Mitch managed his maiden Test century, albeit in a run-fest of a series, and then an opening 96 in South Africa proved a false dawn.

But selectors, and seemingly his teammates, too, were blinded by the light created by Marsh’s time in the sun.

The recall of Mitchell Marsh for the MCG didn’t quite go according to plan..

Beyond just his standing in the pecking order when it comes to selection is the alarming notion that Australia’s best minds saw so much in the younger Marsh that he was appointed Test vice-captain.

When skipper Tim Paine hurt his finger in Adelaide, and speculation turned to who would take over, given he’s a deputy it could have been Mitch Marsh, and he wasn’t even in the team.

When Justin Langer took over as coach he resolved to adopt an AFL-style leadership model, in which the players voted for their preferred captains and vice-captains.

Mitch Marsh is a ripping guy, a positive bloke in the change rooms, happy go lucky and hasn’t been deterred by the constant stream of detractors who have zoned in on what they believe has been an armchair ride through the all-rounder’s 31 Tests.

They are good qualities, and enough for Mitch, who is the captain of Western Australia, to be included as one of six would-be Australian leaders who presented their case for an official leadership role to a Cricket Australia panel in September.

He proved his worth with the ball but Mitch Marsh didn’t fire with the bat at the MCG.

Two members of that panel were national selection chairman Trevor Hohns, and fellow selector Greg Chappell, and its conclusions, we are lead to believe, were for twin vice-captains, including Marsh.

The question marks over that nomination stem from the love Langer has for Marsh.

He made him the West Australian captain, and the now Australian coach pushed hard for Marsh to play in front of axed bastman Peter Handscomb in the opening two Tests of the Indian series, too.

Langer won’t let up, pointing anyone who asks towards his recent first-class record this summer.

He scored 151 in the first Sheffield Shield game, but then followed that with 113 runs at an average of 18 in the next three games.

Why the love from Langer?

Even this post-match Marsh analysis from captain Tim Paine poses the question as to why he’s an anointed Australian leader.

“We just need to make sure he’s at his best more often than not …. that the gap between his best and his worst gets smaller all the time.”

So he’s a work in progress, but a national vice-captain. Says a lot about Australian cricket right now.

Originally published as Australia v India 4th Test: Unbridled Mitchell Marsh love blurs vision of Justin Langer